


How We Got Here

by fallingintodivinity



Category: Black Panther (2018), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Black Panther (2018) Spoilers, F/M, Fluff, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-19
Updated: 2018-02-19
Packaged: 2019-03-21 00:59:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13729761
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fallingintodivinity/pseuds/fallingintodivinity
Summary: T’Challa and Nakia, then and now.





	How We Got Here

**Author's Note:**

> Contains full spoilers for the _Black Panther_ movie.

 

The first time T’Challa sees her is when he accompanies his father to a council meeting. A small group of War Dogs have returned from their latest mission; as their newest recruit and the youngest in the group by far, she speaks little during the debrief, but he notices her for her youth – they are about the same age, he thinks – and her air of serene confidence.

He only learns her name when he runs into her – literally – in a corridor in the palace a few days later. As he’s sheepishly fumbling to pick up the stack of royal documents his father had given to him to read – the stack had been so tall that he hadn’t been able to see over it as he was carrying it to his chambers, and had walked right into her – she bends down to help him pick up the scattered papers, and, smiling, tells him that her name is Nakia.

“Er…hi,” he says dumbly. She has a really pretty smile. “I’m T’Challa.”

“I know, my prince,” she says laughingly, putting the last few papers back on top of the haphazard stack of documents in T’Challa’s arms. He looks down, blushing, and adjusts the papers while he tries desperately to think of something witty and charming to say. When he looks up, mind still blank, she’s gone.

 

***

 

Being of around the same age, T’Challa and Nakia spend much of their leisure time together, when he’s not tied up with royal duties and she’s not away on a mission for the War Dogs. They talk about anything and everything, and one day, when they’re sitting side-by-side in the lush palace gardens, sweltering in the Wakandan heat, their bare feet just barely touching the cool water of one of the ponds in the garden, it feels like the most natural thing in the world to lean over and press their lips together.

When they draw apart, Nakia’s smiling up at him, radiant and content. He smiles back, and leans in again.

 

***

 

It all goes wonderfully, until it doesn’t.

Nakia spends more and more time away as her assignments as a War Dog take her increasingly far from home. She’s also taking on projects of her own, fighting to free their enslaved and oppressed sisters and brothers in neighboring countries. T’Challa respects her tremendously for it and her passion and drive to do the right thing only make him love her more, but between her missions and his duties, they hardly even see each other anymore.

They eventually split up amicably and agree to try to remain friends. The next few times they see each other are a little awkward, at first: but whether they’re lovers or just friends, he’s always loved her and still does. He thinks that she feels the same way, too.

He still misses her terribly, even as he knows they both have their own paths to walk.

But after his father’s untimely death in Vienna, back in Wakanda with his mother and sister by his side, it is Nakia at his other side, holding his hand as he mourns and offering him her silent strength.

 

***

 

His coronation ceremony is tomorrow, and all he can think about is that he wants – _needs_ – Nakia to be there. Okoye gives him a knowing look when he asks for her aid in extracting Nakia, but wordlessly smiles and agrees.

“Just don’t freeze,” Okoye says, with a smirk, “when you see her.”

“What are you talking about,” T’Challa says with dignity. “I _never_ freeze.”

 

***

 

T’Challa takes down the group of human traffickers easily, but it’s when he finally comes face-to-face with Nakia that his mind goes completely blank.

“Nakia,” he breathes. “…hi.”

She looks at him as if he’s lost his mind. Well…he supposes she does have a point. He’s disrupted her mission for no apparent reason and he really should explain himself and his brain knows this perfectly well but somehow his facial muscles aren’t cooperating and all he can do is stand there and smile stupidly at her.

They’re interrupted by one of the goons – half T’Challa’s brain has gone offline after finding Nakia and he’s barely been paying attention to his surroundings – but Okoye, ever vigilant, bless her, steps in and gracefully knocks the man out.

“You froze,” she murmurs to T’Challa as she passes him, and T’Challa can tell that Okoye’s half a millisecond away from rolling her eyes at him but he can’t even find the words to defend himself because she’s _right_ , damn it.

 

***

 

T’Challa takes a dying Everett Ross back to Wakanda because it’s the right thing to do.

Despite everything he’s been taught since he was a child, despite his duty as the King of Wakanda to keep his country’s advanced technology a secret to keep his people safe, he cannot let an innocent man die – much less one who’d taken a bullet to protect one of his people. (It shouldn’t matter to him that the particular person in question was Nakia, but it _does_ , of course it does. He’s only human, after all. But even so, he would have done the same if it had been any other Wakandan, and that – _that_ he’s sure of.)

Okoye’s unhappiness with his decision, his councilors’ anger and worry about bringing a foreigner into their country, he will have to bear with. He is sure of his decision; trading an innocent man’s life to preserve his country’s secrecy…that’s not who he is.

But it is Nakia’s small, approving smile that he carries with him as he squares his shoulders and steps into the council chambers.

 

***

 

Opening Wakanda up to the world was never something T’Challa had seen himself doing. Given the events that have just transpired in Wakanda, though, he knows it’s their only way forward. He does what is necessary and sets the wheels in motion; and now there is just one thing left to do.

He meets Nakia at the boundary of the barrier that keeps their country secret – a barrier that will soon be no more. For a moment, they both silently look out over the familiar, much-loved landscape of Wakanda. One way or another, much will change, and soon.

T’Challa sighs softly, then turns to Nakia.

“Thank you,” he says to her. “You saved me. You saved my family. Our nation.”

She looks away. “There is nothing to thank me for. It is our duty to…” she trails off, still not meeting his eyes, then takes a deep breath. “ – it was my duty to fight for what I love,” she says forthrightly, finally meeting his gaze.

He can’t stop himself from kissing her, then. “You can’t blame me,” he teases as they draw apart. “I almost died.”

When she pulls him close to kiss him back, one slender hand curled around his jaw and tangling in the short hair at the nape of his neck, his heart thundering in his ears, he knows that he cannot let her go again.

“Stay,” he pleads. “And I think I know a way you can still fulfil your calling. Please stay.”

She looks at him, hope and love and the promise of a life shared in her smile, and presses her lips to his, a wordless agreement and the beginning of a future together.

 

End.

 


End file.
